WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a little-noticed move, the U.S. Army has issued new regulations governing the death penalty, raising speculation that the military might be preparing for its first execution since 1961.

"This publication is a major revision," said the document issued January 17 and signed by Sandra Riley, administrative assistant to the secretary of the Army.

"This regulation establishes responsibilities and updates policy and procedures for carrying out a sentence of death as imposed by general courts-martial or military tribunals," the document said.

There are currently six men on military death row in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. One, Dwight Loving, is believed to be the leading candidate for execution.

"We're worried these new regulations might be a sign they are getting ready for an execution," said David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty....>

To Edward Gibbon I am indebted for pointing outthat the inhabitants of a declining empirecould be lured into military service only by dreadof punishment or hope of profit, however miserable.Obvious parallels present themselves.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a little-noticed move, the U.S. Army has issued new regulations governing the death penalty, raising speculation that the military might be preparing for its first execution since 1961.

"This publication is a major revision," said the document issued January 17 and signed by Sandra Riley, administrative assistant to the secretary of the Army.

"This regulation establishes responsibilities and updates policy and procedures for carrying out a sentence of death as imposed by general courts-martial or military tribunals," the document said.

<snip>

The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces rejected his latest appeal last month. It is unclear what, if any, legal resources, he has left at his disposal. The execution would have to be approved by President George W. Bush to go ahead.

In the last military execution to take place, Army Pvt. John Bennett, convicted of the 1955 rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl, was hanged at Fort Leavenworth on April 19, 1961.

New US Army rules for executions of military prisoners do not apply to "war on terror" detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, an army spokesman says. US army spokesman at the Pentagon, Paul Boyce, corrected an earlier statement by another army spokesman, Sheldon Smith, who said the revision of the army regulations on procedures for military executions could affect enemy combatants at Guantanamo. "It's speculation. Secondly, the manual deals with soldiers," Mr Boyce said. "I'm correcting it ... it's wrong."

He says army lawyers were looking into the issue, but a fuller clarification was not expected until Wednesday. Only 10 war-on-terror detainees have so far been charged and referred to special military commissions for trial, and the United States is not seeking the death penalty in any of those cases. But the United States has not ruled out the death penalty for war-on-terror detainees, and the issue has long been a sore point for some US allies with nationals detained at Guantanamo. The army says the changes in the regulations allow executions to be conducted at locations other than Fort Leavenworth, previously the only authorised site for military executions.

Currently, seven military inmates are on death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. No dates have been set for their execution. The order signed January 17 by General Peter Schoomaker, the army chief of staff, says the changes are a "major revision" of the regulations, which apply to all the services, not just the army. The regulations were last revised in 1999. The last time the military executed a prisoner was April 19, 1961, when it put to death John A Bennet for rape and attempted murder. Death penalty opponents say the measure appears to be a "technical adjustment".

"I don't think there is anything imminent but eventually there might be," Richard Deiter said, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre in Washington. "I suspect it is aimed at the military tribunals in Guantanamo. They don't want to bring people from Guantanamo and put them on US soil," he said.

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